I arrived in Cordoba bus station at 7am. Bus journey, not bad. I can't check in my hostel until 1 so chill in the tv room, which has someone passed out in. A French girl arrives, I get chatting to her, she's nice and speaks English AND Spanish. I must make her my new BFF. She's dead pretty and I wonder how she looks so fresh after a 10hour bus journey when I look like a tramp. I have a spot that resembles Mount Etna. She has the same iPhone cover as me but mine is red and hers is blue, which I'm pretty sure is the current equivalent of friendship bracelets in the 90s.
We go off to explore Cordoba. I'm not blown away but there are some pretty buildings and churches and stumble across a military band too. We go to the tourist office to check we haven't missed anything, no as it turns out as its a public holiday so a lot is shut, so we wander to the park which has a big lake and fountains. Later back at the hostel I chill out on the patio and meet an Israeli guy called Moses (no joke), who is stupidly cool and is overjoyed to speak to someone who speaks English, as am I! Was great to have a few people to cook and chat with and have a few beers. And I learnt a lot about being a Jew.
Day 5- Martes
I'm quite sick of cities, only so many historic buildings I can look at and around here is grasslands, hills, mountains... So I am going horseback riding. This Argentinean guy Marcelo picks Amandine and I up, we drive for an hour and went to his farm up in the hills. He is very friendly and we sat outside and drank Mate (Argentinean herbal tea pronounced ma-tay) and ate biscuits. As I'm taking all the scenery in and I think this couldn't get any better One Direction's new song COMES ON THE RADIO!? I am embracing the culture BIG time if it includes 1D.
Horse riding, there's only us three which is good. Amandine has ridden a lot before, me err I can't remember when I was last on a horse but I figure it can't be that hard. I do marathons right. ;-) I loved my horse Peerta she was big and had short spiky hair, edgy innit. But my first hill she wouldn't go down it haha! Marcello was a great teacher and explained she can tell I'm scared so I need to connect with the horse, and asked if I'd seen Avatar. Amazing! I'm all over this analogy and once I relaxed I was fine and not long before I was trotting around.
We did a 20km ride through the hills and rivers. I was quite in awe of where the horses could go as went up some steep hills. Amandine gave me her phone to take a photo at one point and I realised rarely do I want the responsibility of someone's iPhone never mind when I'm on a horse. In a river. It survived though, phew. The sky was so blue and it was sunny around 20deg, but quite windy so it felt colder. It was beautiful scenery and peaceful, good to switch off. This is more like a holiday! Got the goss on Marcelo, he played professional polo across Europe and lived a very rich life for a bit but missed his family. Really cool guy. As it was pretty flat on the last few kms he taught me to gallop.. Lots of fun but if I've learnt anything from today it's that Elle Macpherson bras are not supportive enough for galloping on horses.
Day 6- Miércoles
I have a burnt scalp(?!?), sore bum cheeks from horse riding and barely slept slept thanks to girls chatting loudly until 5am. Ugh. The hostel is full of Chilean girls here for a conference. They are so rude and act like they're at a pyjama party. Amandine and Moses have left. I made friends with a German lady last night. No messing about now. ¿Hablas ingles? Yes. Bosh, you're my friend. She was quite bossy though. She shouted in the night telling the girls to shut up and I tried not to laugh.
Anyway... I booked a hiking trip so I got picked up at 8am. The guy driving knew about 100 words in English and I know about 10 in Spanish so if you've ever had a painful small talk conversation with a taxi driver times it by a thousand. He said I could sleep. Thank god for that.
When my ears popped I wake up and we're up high. As I stumble to my senses I try and ask him who is the guide "me!" and else is on the hike. "Un solo?" "Just me?" "Si!". Oh. ARSE.
I am going on a 6 hour trek with a bloke who barely speaks English. Bollocks doesn't begin to sum this up.
We're in the del Condorita national park which is around 2000m above sea level so it's chilly. There's initially a lot of grasslands and I see a sign saying beware of pumas, Gaston (my guide) explains they are the colour of yellow grass so look like lions. I resist the urge to sing Hakuna Matata from the Lion King. The scenery is rocks, gorges, everything is dry and not much is green. He manages to explain a bit about the rocks and the birds which was interesting- well the bits I understood. He let me steal some Quartz and I feel like a rebel. My 17year old brother Kieran said to me before I left, "Soph, don't carry gold for anyone as its probably coke."
"Why would I carry gold?!"
"I dunno but I've seen Banged up Abroad, you better be careful."
So I hope a cheeky bit of Quartz is ok?! He won't be reading this anyway as I heard the new FIFA is out but just in case I'm not in jail yet Kezza!
Anyway the rest of the hike was lots of rock climbing up and down. Lots of fun. We stopped at the river and waterfall for lunch and we washed tomatoes and fruit in the river and I got to use his penknife! I feel like Bear Grylls. He said I was in very good physical health too, I casually play this off but high fiving in my head... And try and tell him about my marathon too. Poor guy.
By the end of the day I was physically and mentally exhausted and after spending 15 minutes trying to ask "Are we nearly there yet?!" I go delirious and can't stop laughing at how hard it is to communicate. I should have realised that at the beginning of the day when I tried to imitate a horse.
And so tonight I'm on an overnight bus south to Mendoza. The wine region. That's right WINE. Wine will be my new friend. Adios!
Ps apologies for the length of these.. the next one will be less and a while away as I imagine I'll be drunk &/or hungover the next few days
